Lake Mary Jane Alliance

Apartments on 61 Acres on Moss Park Road

The Lake Mary Jane Alliance will strongly oppose this!



Concerns:

Decrease in Home Values

The change from 26 estate homes to 60 - 120 apartments would negatively impact the home values of the neighboring residents in Moss Park Reserve and within our rural settlement.

Inappropriate Densities and No Transitions

The 61-acre parcel is zoned for only 26 estate‑style homes and was intended to serve as a gradual transition from the surrounding natural lands, on 3 sides of the property, to the slightly smaller, 1/2 acre lots in Moss Park Reserve.

Wetlands & Flooding

The property is a narrow strip bounded by Moss Park Road on one side and extensive wetlands along the lake on the other. It is encircled on three sides by preserved lands: Moss. Park to the south, Crosby Island Marsh (managed by GreenPLACE) to the east, and Lake. Hart wetlands to the west. Potential flooding could make development of this small parcel an expensive and challenging ongoing battle, and once paved over could cause other flooding nearby.

Traffic increases and safety concerns

The only traffic on that section of the road is currently from our rural settlement, which is less than 700 homes. Traffic would not only significantly increase from the apartments, but there’s a high-speed limit there and no sidewalks.



Hurdles the developer needs to consider:

“Walkable community” is not realistic

The property is not zoned for restaurants, shops, or schools, making it unrealistic for a walkable community. Developing mixed‑use apartments would require a costly and lengthy rezoning process to attempt to leave the PD and DRI designations, which is unlikely to succeed given the parcel’s size and likely opposition from nearby residents. Such a development would conflict with existing natural lands and the larger homes in Moss Park Reserve, offering no appropriate transitional use.

Legislative bills causing more delays

The LMJA is following the legislative changes that tried to allow developers to bypass the local government process and even eliminate public hearings on land use change. Also, last year there was language slipped into a good bill to help residents that had hurricane damage skip permitting for rebuilding rather than waiting months, but the small language changes on the last night of a session have disrupted local government planning across the state. For now, the Orange County Vision 2050 plan is on hold, so nothing can move forward if it requires a zoning change like this parcel would require.

Chemical cleanup will be required (This would benefit the environment but a big expense for a small development.)

Potential buyers were informed they must conduct an environmental study due to suspected residual chemicals seeping into the soil (likely from a nearby cow‑dipping vat.) Over time, these contaminants may have spread further, especially after hurricanes such as Ian that flooded the property for weeks. This property has been on the market for years, but all other potential buyers or interested parties have withdrawn or cancelled the purchase of this property. Orange County GreenPLACE ranks the site very high to purchase for its uplift potential so they could clean up the chemicals and then keep the land for preservation, but it currently lacks funding to proceed.